Intro One

There’s too many. I can’t-
Wait.
Watch out. Left. Forwards. Just run.
Forests are confusing, dense places, especially at night. My feet can’t carry me fast enough from the shouts and roar of the men. Whether they were coming for me or not I wasn’t taking any chances, I could hear the gunshots skittering amongst the trees.
I had no idea where I was in this jungle. Gnarled branches clawed at my clothes and tore at my skin. Rain was pounding down above me, hitting me viciously through the tight leaves of the trees, making my vision blurred and my hair dripped into my eyes. I scurried up the rugged hill and fell to my knees, panting, behind a tree.
I leant my back against the bark, holding my soaked head in my hands gasping in much needed breath. My body was shaking, it was too cold. But my skin was fiery and I was dripping in sweat from the constant running I had done the last week. My legs were almost broken with effort, my arms were bruised and scratched and I couldn’t care less what my face looked like right now because I knew it would be ruined and unrecognisable. My uniformed black shorts and t-shirt were so ripped and torn that even if they did catch up with me they may not realise I am with them.

God, it was raining harder now. I just wanted to be back home with Mother and Father, snuggled up in my bed. But no, I was running for my life in the middle of a forest with nothing but the rags on my back.
Stop being pessimistic.
“Oh shut up.” I shouted, clutching the back of my head. Stupid voices had started again. I clawed at my hair, desperate to get these things out of my head. I’d give anything I had to be normal. Which is why I was anomalous, I suppose, because I had nothing in my possession.

Knees curled up, eyes strained and voices raging I screamed. No more. I could take this no more. It was like their tortures had turned the volumes of the voices up, at least before I couldn’t hear them. Now they wouldn’t shut up. Ever. The most frequent voice was of another girl, whom I had named ‘Sarah’. She sounded like I would speak, but she would say the strangest, horrible things. I had greeted a woman into our household one day and ‘Sarah’ had told me all about the woman’s affair with another man and how she has always lying to her husband. Obviously, I was shocked and blurted out everything I had just learned through ‘Sarah’. Mother was furious and had not let me out to see guests again.
Now that I think of it, I didn’t really want to go home, my parents weren’t the nicest of people when it came to the voices in my head. They complained, called me mental said I wasn’t right. They were correct, but the way they put it made it sound more abusive than diagnostic.

I shook my head again and banged it backwards onto the tree, cutting another piece of skin from my scalp. I hissed in pain, rubbing the back of my head, wishing for the blood to go away. There had been too much of it lately.
CRACK.
I heard a twig snap behind me somewhere. I froze.
They were here, it had to be them. My heart raced. Pulse quickened. Blood boiled. Pupils dilated.
Across the clearing, leaves began to turn. The wind picked up quickly and began whirling in and out of the trees, tearing roots from the ground.
Here we go again Tor.
“Shut up!” I yelled, covering my eyes with my hands. I imagined somewhere else. Somewhere clean and safe and alone. Where no-one would get hurt.
I groaned in pain as the boiling feeling began to recede.
Why can’t you just let it be for once? See what really happens?
I looked up at the rain clouds and listened to the winds.

They were about 50m away from me, having detected a change in the wind patterns.
I scrambled underneath the foliage and tried not to make my panting to apparent. My heart was racing and images of capture flickered through my head.
You’re gonna die.
“Shut up.” I hissed, ducking my head.
The roar of the people grew closer and closer until their muddy black boots were in front of my eyes, running up the hill and pounding into the wet leaves.
“This is where it was from Sir.” One said.
“Then where is she?” the man named ‘Sir’ shouted back. He was obviously tetchy from having lost someone on his first week at the job. I opened my eyes to get a look at our new official. He was tall, muscular with a chest that was a little too wide for my personal tastes. His face was angular, with prominent cheekbones and a hard, square jaw. White blonde hair flared out from his head, twisted into neat little spikes. He would have been handsome, but his face was wrecked by the angered expression and years of sadism that was portrayed by his hollow eyes and firm mouth. “Search the area.”
Hurt them, now.
The boots scuttled to the edges of the clearing, one pair was inches from where I was curled up. The butt of his rifle began stabbing into the earth, prying deeper into the dead leaves. The rifle was removed and smashed back down into the earth only a few feet away from my arm.
I closed my eyes and held my breath, as the rhythmic pounding got closer. Blood boiled.
The wind grew stronger.
Make them scream. Now.
“Another reading Sir!” One shouted.
“Come out! Girl, we won’t hurt you, we just want to take you back!” Sir yelled into the air.
CRACK.
I screamed in anguish as the rifle smashed into my upper arm and a sickening crack was heard. Shouts of the men were drowned out by the voices in my head that were screeching in anguish. I clutched onto my arm, sobbing as I felt a hand grab my hair firmly. The fingers twisted into my roots and pulled me up roughly, drawing another scream as my hair tore at my head.
I opened my eyes and saw ‘Sir’ looking dead at me from the other side of the clearing. He was smirking, eyes narrowed and careful. The solider holding me tugged on my hair again and I hissed. I reached up and clawed at his hands.
“Fucking stop it.” He said. I dug my nails into his fingers and he grunted. “Bitch.” He shouted, shaking my head and pulling on my hair tightly. My eyes watered and I whimpered. Pupils dilated.
Get him off of me.
“Bow.” The solider said, pulling again.
“L-let me go!” I shouted, thrashing around trying to ignore the throbbing of my arm.
“Shut the fuck up and bow.” He shouted, kicking the back of my knees and forcing me to the ground. The leaves around me swirled slightly as my knees cracked on the ground.
I looked up at Sir, who was much closer now. He circled me once, taking in my dishevelled appearance and leering at me. He grabbed my chin in his hands and peered at my face, kneeling down, jerking it from side to side. He looked me dead in the eyes and I glared back him. He dropped my head and lightly tapped me on the cheek. I wrenched my head away and breathed in deeply. He glared at me and pulled my head back towards his face. His thumb rolled over my cheekbone and I shivered.
“She’s a pretty one,” he jeered, drawing laughs from the men surrounding us. He leant forwards and pulled me closer by my collar, his head resting on my shoulder. “Do I scare you?” he hissed into my ear. One of his large hands wrapped around my broken upper arm softly.
“No.” I stammered, trying to pull away. He held tighter.
“Do I fucking scare you?!” he yelled, clenching tightly onto my crunching bones. A shrill cry ripped from my lungs.
“Let me go!” I shouted back at him. I wrenched my arms back, painfully.
“You will listen to me. And you will come back with us,” he said, getting to his feet and facing away from me.
“Over my dead body,” I replied.
“That can be arranged,” Sir snapped, whirling around and colliding his fist with my face.
Get him.
I fell to the ground with a shriek, clutching my face. My hands felt liquid gushing from my cheek and the smell of it made me feel nauseous.
“Just leave us all alone!” I cried, trying not to let my tears fall.
I hadn’t noticed before but now it was apparent. The soldiers were hanging onto their hats trying not to let them be blown away and the trees were swaying, trying not to get their roots ripped out.
Sir looked down at me and kicked me in the ribs. “Stop it.”
The winds blew faster as I rolled in pain on the floor.
Sir leant down and pulled me up. My feet were knocked from underneath me and he backed me into a tree, crashing my back hard into the bark.
Everything was still.
He’s going to hurt you Tor. Hurt him first.
“Just kill me!” I sobbed, banging my fists against his chest weakly.
“Do you think that unless you were worth anything you would still be here?” He hissed. His hands were moving slowly down my stomach. They pushed up under my black t-shirt and ran over my shaking diaphragm before he began moving them down again. His face was leant forwards, lips skimming my cheek. “And besides, I’d quite like to keep you.” I grabbed his hands before they rested on my hips and he laughed darkly and pressed my hands back into the bark, above my head.
I groaned as my arm was stretched too far and the broken bone pushed into my skin. A ripple of tension ran through my body and Sir stared into my eyes, of which I glared back defiantly.
One of his large palms held my two wrists firmly against the bark, above my head while the other ran down my cheekbone.
“You’re so malnourished. Don’t you just want to come back with us for food?”
“What, so you can feed me, then scalpel me apart!? I don’t think so.”
“Tough luck sunshine. We’re going back. But first…I promised my boys a little something,” He said, dropping my arms. He grabbed a shoulder and pushed me forwards into the clearing where the five other men surrounded me.
“Good work. Boys.” Sir said. It sounded like an order.
The men began laughing and moving closer towards me, hands outstretched.
“Don’t worry darling.”
“Yeah princess, don’t be a prude.”
“Look, she’s shaking!”
One moved forwards and tore the sleeve of my shirt, mocking me.
I let out a scream and tried to run through a gap between them. Successfully, I managed to duck under their arms and sprinted down the hill. But out of nowhere Sir was in front of me and I crashed into his solid body, and fell backwards into the mud.
“How did you?” I asked, dazed.
“You freaks aren’t the only ones at the unit who are gifted,” he hissed. He was fast. Very fast.
He wrenched me back upright and drew me close. “Now will you come back with no fuss? Or shall I throw you to the dogs again? Because believe you me, most of the freaks aren’t as pretty as you darlin’.”
“Yes, yes. I’ll go.” I sighed defeated. He smirked and brought my hands forwards, clamping some thick metallic cuffs around them too tightly.
He grabbed the chain in the middle of the cuffs and pulled me along like an animal on a leash and through the jeering crowd of men. One smacked his hand against my backside as I stumbled along the leafy track behind Sir and I yelped in pain. They laughed at this and began taking turns to see who could draw the loudest scream from me.
“Idiots,” I thought I heard Sir mutter but he kept moving, dragging me almost down the steep hill.
We arrived at a truck where there were more soldiers waiting inside, clutching their rifles as the heavy rain pounded into their helmets.
Sir bundled me into the back and One sat next to me and the other four crammed into the open air truck. Sir climbed into the front seat, next to the driver in the safe and warm, and looked back at me, smirking. One rested his hand on my leg, smoothing up my torn shorts.
“Touch me and I’ll claw your eyes out,” I said, glaring at him.
One smirked. “I think not darling, you’re the one wearing the cuffs.”
The truck began to slowly move down the hill.
The soldier next to me followed his action, resting on the other leg. I slammed my thighs together and shifted backwards onto my seat as the men laughed heartily.
“Awh, your girlfriend doesn’t like you!” a soldier laughed at One. One pulled me onto his lap and circled his arms around my waist.
“She loves me really!” he taunted. Pulse quickened.
I threw my legs backwards and crushed his ankles into the back of the truck and swung my hands round, slicing his face open with the metal from the cuffs.
I ran into the middle of the truck, stumbling from the motion of it moving. I felt something grab my ankle and pull me down onto the floor. I yelped as the truck floor winded me and I looked back to see One grabbing my feet, clutching his bleeding face.
“You fuc-“ he began, pulling me towards him.
He wrenched me underneath him, straddling my legs and his face contorted with rage.
Now you’re for it Tor. Well done, why the hell can’t you just be normal?
“You’re gonna regret that you little bitch.”
He gripped my collar tightly, and shredded the t-shirt down the middle. I cried as the cold air hit my chest and stomach, too weak to fight back anymore. I could hear the men egging him on and chuckling, wolf whistling and some of them were making disgusted faces at One. The truck jolted to a stop sending me flying backwards into the end of the truck. I scrambled up painfully whimpering because of the fire in my arm.
Sir was standing at the end of the truck above me, looking sternly in my eyes.
“Come with me.” He ordered, grabbing my arm and hoisting me over the edge of the truck. He led me to the front of the huge tank-like vehicle and pushed me inside onto the warm, dry back seat. Inside there was a partition of opaque glass on either side, one overlooking the driver and the other looking at the soldiers, who were pulling One up, pushing him back to his seat.
Sir closed the door of the truck and banged on the drivers side. The truck leapt forwards again and we skidded down the hillside quickly.
I stared ahead of me. How could people be so cruel?
“Here.” Sir said, throwing a black jacket at me. I pulled it on quickly, wanting to shield myself from prying eyes.
He’s not looking at you Tor.
I stared ahead, cringing at the tension hidden in the silence.
“If you want me to keep them off you then you’ll think next time you blow the doors off the unit,” Sir said, not looking at me but staring off into the distance.
I nodded slightly and leant further backwards into the seat.
“Thank you,” I said, faintly. He turned to look at me, eyes cold and grimace firmly set.
“I only did it so that you wouldn’t be ruined by those louts. You’re mine,” he hissed, possessively.
I folded my hands in my seat and looked straight ahead, too nervous to move any further. The truck jolted to a stop, shuddering on the uneven ground. The door swung open and Sir pushed me from the seat.
The ground was hard; raindrops were pounding into the ground, sending splatters into my legs. The sky was still dark and I could see the shadowy building of the UNIT down the driveway.
Small lights were cast over the drive, illuminating the shining, wet driveway. The UNIT. My home.